Big Willie good point, I missed that. Though in some ways it’s all the more relevant.

    Mudryk seems to be having something of a breakout season tbf

    goon Neto has PL experience which means any settling in period will be minimal.

    Neto also suffered his second major injury, think he had an ankle operation a couple months ago

    Pepe LeFrits Price seems to drop every time a new article is out! His form this season seems good, 8 goals in 13 league games which is his best tally.

          Only other thing I'd add on Neto is that he has experience playing on the right too.

          This whole deal's been lining up like the docking sequence from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Starting to feel like all the early press, photographs of Dubai meet-ups etc are jinxing it

          • goon replied to this.

            Burnwinter one of those where you log in one day and see he's signed for Aston Villa or something.

            As we showed with Partey, Ben White, Ramsdale and arguably Jesus we're not ones to shy away from paying what we need to secure our no.1 target anymore.

              If we can't get a striker in we need to get this guy in quickly and move Martinelli central . Otherwise that 5 point lead will evaporate very quickly and we will end up in a dogfight for 4th.

              He's the equivalent of AFCamden for Newcastle. Knows some insiders but could be bullshit too.

              JazzG PL experience massively overrated anyway. Monreal came in 2014 trained for like one day then put in a solid 8/10 performance vs Stoke including a bloody nose. Zinchenko cost us more than triple the fee came in from rough NW England and has more injuries than appearances for us.

                  jones I don't think it is overrated, if a player has PL experience usually means they will settle in quicker. Zinchenko may be injured a lot but his performances have generally been outstanding. Also there is always a risk when you sign anyone from a different league, for whatever reason they might not hit the levels here. It is a lot less common for a player to move within the league and not hit their previous level.

                  It is less common now I suppose but there have been a fair few players who come from abroad and it can take them 6-12 months to get used to life on and off the pitch in a new country. Players like Pires & Henry took 6-12 months to settle in whereas players like Cazorla & Monreal settled in quick.

                      JazzG Of course it's less common but the difference isn't big enough for the ridiculous premium you paid for it. @Clrnc me and others were singing Cucurella's praises years ago when he was at Getafe, Brighton paid 15m or so for him and just one season later flipped him as a top 10 most expensive defender ever.

                      If Saliba were born William Salibury near Brighton and Hove we would've had to pay two and a half Maguires for him.

                        5 days later

                        40+20m bid rejected, per romano.

                        surely shouldn't take much more to get this over the line

                        Found the Ukranian Journo I met on twitter, think he tweeted that our offer was adequate.

                        Key is that he ‘only wants Arsenal’.

                        Assume it’s all down to finer details and structure now. Looking at our bench I can see why we want this done sooner rather than later.

                        Do we recon that undercut stays or goes within a few months of London life?

                        Way more? What is wrong with the world?